The double-edged sword: Emotional regulation for children at risk.

Abstract: The capacity to manage emotion is based on the growth of self-regulatory capacities in the early years, but is also affected by situational demands, influences from other people, and the child's goals for regulating emotion in a particular setting. For most children growing up in supportive contexts, the growth of emotional regulation is associated with enhanced psychosocial wellbeing and socioemotional competence. But for children who are at risk for the development of psychopathology owing to environmental stresses or intrinsic vulnerability (or their interaction), emotional regulation often entails inherent trade-offs that make nonoptimal strategies of managing emotion expectable, perhaps inevitable, in a context of difficult environmental demands and conflicting emotional goals. This analysis discusses how emotional regulation in children at risk may simultaneously foster both resiliency and vulnerability by considering how emotion is managed when children (a) are living with a parent who is depressed, (b) witness or experience domestic violence, or (c) are temperamentally inhibited when encountering novel challenges. In each case, the child,s efforts to manage emotion may simultaneously buffer against certain stresses while also enhancing the child's vulnerability to other risks and demands. This double-edged sword of emotional regulation in conditions of risk for children cautions against using "optimal" emotional regulation as an evaluative standard for such children or assuming that emotional regulation necessarily improves psychosocial well-being. It also suggests how the study of emotional regulation must consider the goals for regulating emotion and the contexts in which those goals are sought. Article: Emotions are complex phenomena. They entail constellations of physiological arousal, cognitive appraisal, and expressive activity that interact with situational demands and cultural rules to create subtly nuanced, richly variable subjective and behavioral events. Individual differences in emotion are also multifaceted, fashioned from the interaction of organismic (e.g., temperamental) characteristics, experiential history, construals of oneself and the situation, and the personal goals that shape emotional arousal and its expression. Consequently, although emotion has its roots in the legacy of biological adaptation, it also reflects some of the most sophisticated features of human social cognition, self-understanding, and strategic functioning. It should be no surprise, therefore, that emotional regulation is a complex phenomenon. Although strategies of emotional self-regulation originate in the young infant's simple efforts to cope with distress through self-soothing, they quickly become integrated into a network o

Predicting Cardiac Vagal Regulation in Early Childhood from Maternal–Child Relationship Quality during Toddlerhood

The aim of this study was to examine the influence of maternal–child relationship quality during toddlerhood on early childhood physiological regulation. A community sample of 447 children (215 males) was recruited at age 2 for participation in the study using the Child Behavior Checklist [Achenbach [1992] Manual for the child behavior checklist/2–3 & 1992 profile. Burlington, VT: University of VT Department of Psychiatry]. Mothers and children were observed across several interactions in the laboratory at age 2 and mothers completed the Parenting Stress Index [Abidin [1995] Manual for the parenting stress index. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources]. Relationship quality was assessed using laboratory measures of hostility, positive guidance, and stress related to the quality of the relationship as reported by mothers. Cardiac vagal regulation at age 2 was assessed across six challenge tasks, three in which the child and mother worked together and three in which the child worked independently, and was indexed by the magnitude of vagal withdrawal (decrease in respiratory sinus arrhythmia, RSA) to challenge. Results indicated that children displayed greater cardiac vagal regulation and heart rate acceleration during collaborative tasks versus independent tasks. In addition, maternal–child relationship quality predicted the degree of vagal regulation in children at age 5, even after controlling for early and concurrent level of behavior problems as well as 2-year cardiac vagal regulation. Children with poorer quality relationships displayed significantly poorer vagal regulation and lower heart rate acceleration (p <.01). These findings are discussed in terms of the implications of environmental factors for the acquisition of fundamental self-regulatory skills

The Role of Emotion Regulation and Children's Early Academic Success

This study investigated the role of children's emotion regulation skills and academic success in kindergarten, using a sample of 325 five-year-old children. A mediational analysis addressed the potential mechanisms through which emotion regulation relates to children's early academic success. Results indicated that emotion regulation was positively associated with teacher reports of children's academic success and productivity in the classroom and standardized early literacy and math achievement scores. Contrary to predictions, child behavior problems and the quality of the student teacher relationship did not mediate these relations. However, emotion regulation and the quality of the student-teacher relationship uniquely predicted academic outcomes even after accounting for IQ. Findings are discussed in terms of how emotion regulation skills facilitate children's development of a positive student-teacher relationship and cognitive processing and independent learning behavior, both of which are important for academic motivation and success

Developmental origins of early antisocial behavior

Early antisocial behavior has its origins in childhood behavior problems, particularly those characterized by aggressive and destructive behavior. Deficits in self-regulation across multiple domains of functioning, from the physiological to the cognitive, are associated with early behavior problems, and may place children at greater risk for the development of later antisocial behavior. Data are presented from a longitudinal study of early self-regulation and behavior problems, the RIGHT Track Research Project, demonstrating that children at greatest risk for early and persistent problem behavior display patterns of physiological and emotional regulation deficits early in life. Parenting behavior and functioning have also been examined as predictors of trajectories of early problem behavior, and some data support the interaction of parenting and self-regulation as significant predictors of patterns of problematic behavior and ongoing problems with the regulation of affect. Peer relationships also affect and are affected by early self-regulation skills, and both may play a role in academic performance and subsequent school success. These data provide evidence that the social contexts of early family and peer relationships are important moderators of the more proximal mechanism of self-regulation, and both types of processes, social and biobehavioral, are likely implicated in early antisocial tendencies. Implications of these findings on self-regulation and early behavior problems are discussed in terms of future research and treatment approaches

Testing a developmental cascade model of emotional and social competence and early peer acceptance

A developmental cascade model of early emotional and social competence predicting later peer acceptance was examined in a community sample of 440 children across the ages of 2 to 7. Children’s externalizing behavior, emotion regulation, social skills within the classroom and peer acceptance were examined utilizing a multitrait–multimethod approach. A series of longitudinal cross-lag models that controlled for shared rater variance were fit using structural equation modeling. Results indicated there was considerable stability in children’s externalizing behavior problems and classroom social skills over time. Contrary to expectations, there were no reciprocal influences between externalizing behavior problems and emotion regulation, although higher levels of emotion regulation were associated with decreases in subsequent levels of externalizing behaviors. Finally, children’s early social skills also predicted later peer acceptance. Results underscore the complex associations among emotional and social functioning across early childhood

Shyness and Vocabulary: The Roles of Executive Functioning and Home Environmental Stimulation

Although shyness has often been found to be negatively related to vocabulary, few studies have examined the processes that produce or modify this relation. The present study examined executive functioning skills and home environmental stimulation as potential mediating and moderating mechanisms. A sample of 3½-year-old children (N = 254) was administered executive functioning tasks and a vocabulary test during a laboratory visit. Mothers completed questionnaires assessing child shyness and home environmental stimulation. Our primary hypothesis was that executive functioning mediates the association between shyness and vocabulary, and home environmental stimulation moderates the relation between executive functioning and vocabulary. Alternative hypotheses were also tested. Results indicated that children with better executive functioning skills developed stronger vocabularies when reared in more, versus less, stimulating environments. Implications of these results are discussed in terms of the role of shyness, executive functioning, and home environmental stimulation in early vocabulary development

Physiological and behavioral regulation in two-year-old children with aggressive/destructive behavior problems.

A sample of 99 two-year-old children was selected on the basis ofparents’ responses to two administrations ofthe Child Behavior Checklist for two- to three-year-olds. Forty-nine ofthese children displayed symptoms of aggressive/destructive (externalizing) problems that were in the borderline clinical range (labelled ?high risk?) and 50 children displayed few such symptoms (?low risk?). The children were assessed in a series of laboratory procedures that were intended to be emotionally and behaviorally challenging, during which time heart rate was recorded and behavior was observed. To assess physiological regulation, resting measures of heart period and respiratory sinus arrythmia (RSA), and heart period change and RSA suppression were derived from these procedures. To assess emotional and behavioral regulation, children’s affect and on-task versus types of off-task behaviors were measured. Results indicated that children in the high-risk group did not differ from children in the low-risk group on the resting measure of heart period. Boys displayed lower heart rate than did girls, regardless of risk group. However, boys in the low-risk group differed from boys in the high-risk group in terms of resting measures of RSA. Children in the high-risk group did display significantly and consistently lower RSA suppression (physiological regulation) during the challenging situations than did the children in the low-risk group. High-risk children displayed more negative affect and dysregulated emotion regulation behaviors than did the low risk children. These findings are discussed in terms of the development of behavioral and emotional regulation that underlie adaptive versus maladaptive behavior

Neural plasticity and development in the first two years of life: Evidence from cognitive and socioemotional domains of research.

Three models that can be used to investigate the effects of different environmental events on brain development and organization are explored. The insult model argues against brain plasticity, and the environmental model regards the brain as infinitely plastic. Our work is guided by the transactional model, which views brain development and organization as an interaction between (a) genetically coded programs for the formation and connectivity of brain structures and (b) environmental modifiers of these codes. Data are reported from our cognitive and socioemotional research studies that support the notion of plasticity during the first 2 years of life. From our work with normal developmental processes, we draw parallels to abnormal development and speculate how the transactional model can be used to explain abnormal brain organization and development

Emotional reactivity and emotion regulation strategies as predictors of social behavior with peers during toddlerhood.

Fifty-six mothers and their 24-month-old toddlers were observed on two occasions in a series of laboratory procedures designed to assess relations between emotional functioning (emotional reactivity and emotion regulation) in an individual assessment and social behavior with a same-sex peer. Emotional reactivity was assessed using two frustration tasks designed to elicit distress. Emotional regulation was assessed by examining the child’s behaviors (venting, distraction, focal-object focus, self-orientation, and mother-orientation) when confronted by the two distress-eliciting tasks. Peer play behaviors were coded for social participation and peer-directed conflict (aggressive) behavior. The results indicated that both emotional reactivity and emotion regulation were important predictors of at least two types of social behavior: conflict and cooperation. Distress to frustration, when accompanied by high venting or high focal-object focus, was significantly related to conflict with peers but not when accompanied by distraction, mother-orientation or self-focused behaviors. These findings are discussed in terms of the adaptive value of emotion regulation skills in early development, and the importance of identifying the causal relations between child regulation and early social competence

Do aggressive/destructive toddlers lack concern for others? Behavioral and physiological indicators of empathic responding in 2-year-old children

Ninety-nine 2-year-olds, out of a larger sample of 474 children, were classified as high (n = 49) or low (n = 50) in externalizing (aggressive/destructive) behaviors based on maternal reports assessed twice across a 2-month period. During a laboratory assessment, these toddlers participated in two empathy-eliciting tasks, from which affective, behavioral, and physiological measures were derived. Relations among measures of empathy were examined both within and across episodes and aggression groups. Analyses indicated that different indices of empathy were related to each other, both within and across empathy situations. In addition, aggressive children displayed more behaviors indicative of empathy than did nonaggressive children. Finally, a pattern of physiological responding to another’s distress was evident across both groups of children, and some results indicated that greater physiological regulation was related to less empathy-related behavior. Results are discussed in terms of the developing nature of empathy and its changing association with both self-regulation and aggression